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Imac won't load pages in any browser


Hi everyone, I have a very frustrating problem that I can’t resolve no matter how much internet research I do.

I have a 17” Imac which uses a wired connection to the internet. A year ago the Imac became intermittent with it’s internet connection. Sometimes it connected with no problem, sometimes pages wouldn’t load fully in any browser resulting in disconnection after a few seconds saying it had been terminated by the remote site. Sometimes the page wouldn’t load at all and it would say it couldn’t find the server or negotiate a connection with the server. My laptop and PC both use the same broadband connection with no problems. Eventually the Imac refused to load pages unless I put the Imac to sleep and tried again, but connecting became less and less successful. I tried reloading OSX tiger which it was running at the time. This seemed to solve the problem perfectly. But after a few days the problem returned. 2 days ago I upgraded to Leopard hoping it would solve the problem but it hasn’t. I’ve no idea what to do now. I’ve had this Imac since 2005 when it was running Panther and it’s always worked perfectly. Any suggestions would be really great. :-(

Posted on Apr 18, 2014 1:36 PM

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14 replies

Apr 18, 2014 2:07 PM in response to Cyberbyker

Back in the day when Panther was out, most WiFi connections were only 802.11b. If your problem is hooking up via WiFi, unfortunately, 802.11b won't cut it anymore. 802.11g is necessary for WPA2 encryption. And 802.11n is what is used with the fastest wireless connections. Now if the iMac is a Dome iMac with the articulating arm over the dome holding the display, it may or may not support USB 2, or it may or may not support 802.11g, whereas if it is a single panel on an L shaped stand, it can be connected either via a USB 2 dongle, or 802.11g Airport Extreme card. We need you to identify your iMac, before we proceed. See this tip:


https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2672

Apr 23, 2014 11:08 AM in response to Cyberbyker

The machine is old enough it may need a new PRAM battery, which could explain the flakiness of the ethernet ports. How is the machine connected to the internet? Is there a router with multiple ethernet ports on the modem, or is there a separate ethernet router or WiFi ethernet bridge connecting the Mac?


The iMac G5 you describe is compatible with the Apple Airport Extreme card, which supports 33 Mbps 802.11g WPA2 secured connections, but nothing faster based on an internal card. Do not attempt to plug in an Apple Original Airport card without the "extreme" labelling.

Apr 26, 2014 10:44 AM in response to a brody

Hello again a brody, thanx so much for replying.


My Imac is connected to the internet via a very simple D-Link DSL 200 ADSL modem with only 2 ports. A USB cable plugs into the modem from the Imac, another cable connects from the modem to the phone line. There are 2 green lights on the front to indicate the modem has both power and broadband. That’s it.


Yesterday the Imac was loading web pages normally on both Safari and Firefox for 2 hours. Today web pages are again refusing to load fully, resulting in the internet disconnecting after a minute.


I created a guest account and connected to the internet, but web pages still wouldn't fully load . I tested the ISP DNS by typing a website address into the Terminal app and it responded properly. I'm at a loss to what the problem is.

Apr 26, 2014 12:08 PM in response to BDAqua

And if BDAqua's suggesion does not work, contact your internet provider and ask them if they can provide you with a modem that requires ethernet or 802.11g or better for WiFi for connectivity to your computer. If not, you may need to limit what USB devices are hooked up to your Mac. USB is very finicky for internet connectivity. D-Link does not even provide Macintosh drivers for your modem. This means the less overhead on the USB your Mac has to deal with, the better, since then it can address the modem directly. One thing I do know about USB connectivity is Energy Saver can make it worse and put your USB ports in a low power mode that not all USB devices will be happy with. Connecting via a wall powered USB hub can alleviate such issues.

Apr 27, 2014 3:11 PM in response to Cyberbyker

HI thanx for replying. I’m away for a few days so don’t have access to the Imac now.

Assuming that typing the numbers BDAqua suggested into the DNS dosn’t cure the problem, is it worth just converting the Imac to wifi? Would wifi get rid of the problem?

If so should I use a USB dongle like NewerTech Max Power USB adaptot (but people say usb isn’t great for Macs),

or an 802 11g Airport Extreme card (but I don’t fancy opening the Imac to install it)

or is there something I can plug into the ethernet port to pick up wifi?


I’ve been using my D-Link modem (which came with Mac drivers) to connect the Imac to the internet for years with no problems until now. My laptop and PC which I got recently both use the same internet but connect via a wireless router which I have to unplug downstairs if I want to go online with the wired Imac, which is a hassle and reason enough to switch the Imac to wifi. But I don't want to spend money doing this if the problem is with the browsers and not internet connection.

May 1, 2014 9:46 AM in response to Cyberbyker

Hi, I'm back at home with my Imac now. So I put the numbers into the DNS as BDAqua suggested. All that happened is the web page loaded faster but only partially and then the Imac disconnected itself from the internet.


So as I mentioned in my last post, is it worth converting the Imac to wifi? Would it solve the problem? If so which is better? A USB dongle like Newtertech Max Power USB adaptor? An 802 11g Airport extreme card? Or is there something I can plug into the ethernet port to pick up wifi?


My laptop and PC both use the same internet as the Imac but connect via a wireless router downstairs which I have to unplug when going online with the wired Imac.


May 18, 2014 1:31 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi everyone, just thought I'd give you an update on the on going battle with getting my Imac's browser to fully load web pages.

After trying everything I could think of and trying what others had suggested I gave up and decided to do a clean re-install of Leopard, but Safari still refused to fully load. I then partitioned the hard disk and added OSX Tiger back on. I decided that rather than fighting to download drivers so I could continue using stuff in Leopard, it would be easier to use tiger as and when needed. Considering that I upgraded to Leopard hoping to solve the problem of Safari / Firefox refusing to load properly, it is Tiger's browser that now works perfectly but Leopard's browser often refuses to load web pages fully unless I either put Imac to sleep and wake it up several times, or open Safari while downloading email. Weird eh? Anyway thanx to you both BD Aqua and A Brody for your help.

Imac won't load pages in any browser

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